Call forwarding is a feature typically supported in many communication systems. Call forwarding allows a user in the communication system to forward telephone calls directed at one telephone device to another telephone device. To use the call forwarding feature, the user or “subscriber” typically needs to enter a code and instruct the telephone system where to forward the calls.
A problem with conventional communication systems is that the user typically needs to manually activate and deactivate the call forwarding feature. For example, an employee of a company may have a wireless mobile phone, also called a “mobile station,” and a desk phone. To forward calls from the desk phone to the mobile phone, the employee needs to manually instruct the telephone system to forward calls for the desk phone to the mobile phone. If the employee wants to deactivate the call forwarding feature before leaving work, the employee must pick up a phone and manually deactivate the call forwarding feature in the telephone system. Because the user typically must activate and deactivate the call forwarding feature manually, the user may forget to turn the call forwarding feature on or off. Also, since the mobile phone and the desk phone may not be located in the same room, it may be impractical for the user to manually turn the call forwarding feature on or off. In addition, if the user leaves an area covered served by the communication system and the mobile phone deregisters from the system, the user cannot use the mobile phone to manually activate and deactivate the call forwarding feature. As a result, the user may receive calls at unwanted times or at unwanted telephones.
Another problem with conventional communication systems is that the user is typically associated with multiple telephone numbers and/or extension numbers. For example, an employee may be reached by dialing the employee's mobile phone number or the employee's desk phone number. Because the employee may forget to activate the call forwarding feature on one of the employee's telephones, a person attempting to contact the employee may need to dial multiple telephone numbers to reach the employee.
As a result of any of these or other disadvantages, previous call forwarding techniques have been inadequate in many communication systems.